'Hero' Cast Had To Battle Elements

Director Robert Aldrich's Too Late the hero (1970), which was shot on location in the Philippines, is an exciting World War II melodrama co-starring Cliff Robertson and Michael Caine as military antagonists who come to respect each other during a suicidal mission.

Robertson plays a gold-bricking U.S. Navy officer, Lt. Lawson, who, because of his ability to speak Japanese, is recruited by his commanding officer, played by Henry Fonda, to join a battle-weary and somewhat jaded British army unit on a mission to blow up a Japanese observation outpost. Caine plays Pvt. Tosh Hearne, one of the 13 Britons on the mission.

Those playing other members of the commando unit include Denholm Elliott as Capt. Hornsby, the ineffectual commanding officer of the unit; Ian Bannen as Pvt. Thornton, a battle-hardened veteran; and Ronald Fraser as Pvt. Campbell, a sardonic medic and cowardly whiner. Ken Takakura plays the commanding officer of a Japanese patrol that pursues the Allied unit through the jungle.

Cast and crew had to endure stifling heat and humidity during 22 weeks of filming in the Philippines.

Caine considered the location to be the worst of his film career. Caine: ''All around us was dense jungle and great hill ranges. A lot of it was very beautiful if you were shortsighted and didn't notice the human misery. . . . We were plagued by insect, thorns and 120-degree temnperatures every day, accompanied by the highest humidity that it is possible to measure.''

Because of the dire working conditions, Aldrich had a shooting schedule of 14 days on and five days off. During the five-day break in shooting, most of the cast, including, Caine and Robertson, would go to either Manila or Taiwan.

Robertson, who was initially displeased with some of his character's lines in the script, had screenwriter-friend Stanley Ralph Ross, add some humor to the character in Robertson's copy of the script. The actor then convinced Aldrich that the changes were last-minute, off-the-cuff ad-libs.

(Can you guess for what 1969 picture Cliff Robertson won an Oscar? Call my Source Line, listed below, for the answer.)